Nine months after a historic general election, prominent attorney and commentator Jomo Thomas is calling on both citizens and the newly installed New Democratic Party (NDP) administration to move past lingering campaign anxieties and shift their focus toward systemic transparency and legal accountability.
Speaking on his weekly program “Plain Talk with Jomo Thomas” on OMG, the attorney expressed surprise at the continued public obsession with electoral politics so early in the term, urging the governing administration to deliver on its promises of anti-corruption investigations rather than worrying about the next vote.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines transitioned power on November 27, 2025, following a highly charged general election. Under the current political landscape, the NDP sits in government while the Unity Labour Party (ULP), historically unaccustomed to being in opposition now finds itself on the other side of the aisle.
Thomas noted that while ULP forces are understandably consumed with their loss—having lost what he described, quoting Fidel Castro, as the “honeycomb of power”—he finds the ongoing preoccupation of opposition and government supporters alike to be misplaced. Barring highly improbable events, the next general elections are not due until 2030.
According to Thomas, the primary friction point currently facing the new government is the “issue of rising expectations.”
He explained that campaign rhetoric frequently collides with reality once governing begins, as voters recall promises of immediate, dramatic improvements to employment and living conditions.
While some commentators have highlighted rising murmurs of disappointment among NDP supporters, Thomas characterized these fears as overblown, arguing that critical supporters are highly unlikely to return their votes to the ULP.
“Opposition parties don’t win elections; governing parties lose elections,” Thomas noted, citing a famous maxim by former Prime Minister Sir James Mitchell. He advised the administration to pay attention to these quiet discontents but cautioned against treating amplified, megaphone-led complaints of “widespread dissatisfaction” as a sign of imminent political shift.
Rather than letting the national conversation be dominated by distant elections or demands for political vengeance, Thomas argued that the government, bureaucrats, and the public should channel their energy into demanding concrete governance reforms. He laid out a clear roadmap for strengthening transparency, deepening democracy, and ensuring democratic best practices.
“What needs to be done is for ministers, bureaucrats, and strong supporters of the government to demand forensic audits and investigations,” Thomas said. He urged the administration to compile rigorous legal evidence of misbehavior in public office and present these findings directly to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Thomas asserted that such legal actions would effectively dismantle the opposition’s base and silence its leading spokespeople.
In particular, he focused on former Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, stating that Gonsalves remains “mortally afraid” of facing charges and that, based on public disclosures, the former leader has “a very strong case to answer” regarding misbehavior in public office.
The attorney identified several high-profile public programs and projects from the previous 24-year administration that demand deep forensic investigation:
The National Lottery Directive: Thomas highlighted a specific, allegedly illegal transaction that occurred just a week before the 2025 election. He claimed that the CEO of the National Lottery was directed by the former Prime Minister—who lacked legal authority over the board-governed entity—to issue a $250,000 check to an individual to begin work on a playing field. The check was cut the following day, but the promised playing field work was never executed.
The $10 Million IMF Loan: Thomas pointed to the previous administration’s public boasting of borrowing $10 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and giving it away “for free.” He called for a thorough investigation to reveal the recipients and the criteria used to distribute these funds.
Procurement and Infrastructure Spending: The attorney called for audits into hundreds of millions of dollars spent under the PetroCaribe program, the National Lottery, and the $900 million Argyle International Airport. Specifically, he pointed to over $600 million in expenditures where officials allegedly issued directives that violated the national Procurement Act without judicial or legal authority.
Addressing concerns that prosecuting a veteran political figure in his later years would be a waste of public funds, Thomas rejected the argument entirely. He suggested that such claims typically originate from those hoping to cover up previous corruption.
However, Thomas warned the NDP administration against repeating the costly mistakes of the past.
He recalled a previous commission of inquiry under the Gonsalves administration that spent upwards of $10 million investigating political figures, only to fizzle out after a successful appeal to the Privy Council on the grounds of commissioner bias.
“Don’t waste ten million dollars on political bias,” Thomas cautioned. Instead, he advocated for hiring professional, independent auditors to conduct precise, evidence-based “deep dives” into previous state-administered programs.
“If that is done properly, some people should go to jail,” Thomas stated. “And that’s what the country needs to be concerned about, discovery and disclosure of what the last administration did that was not in keeping with good politics and good government.”
